How do you feel about getting old?

[Medusa]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Hate and love.
What I hate:
My body falling apart. Needing to sleep more. Needing to eat less spicy foods. Not having the energy I used to have. Mostly the body thing.

What I like:
I'm finally comfortable with myself body and mind. I can say something totally coocoo and people take it for truth because I'm old, I know stuff. . My body is old but my mind still feels 14 and I love it. Being able to do whatever the hell I want. People not bothering me. Moving at my own pace and not apologizing for it.

And two of the best things I love?
Knowing all the young people will be old like me.
My rule of don't give an F. Ever. Nothing at 41 is that important that I need to get up at the crack of dawn. Ever.

Also when I tell people to shut up. They do.

[Doc_Holliday]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Above me are two very good and in my opinion healthy outlooks on aging.

[Ophidia]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Fear of ageing is something that has been hammered into our brains by modern society and way of life.

It used to be that age was a sign of experience, health, wisdom and trustworthiness.

Now our brains tell us old people are weak, dying, mentally incompetent, restricted, disabled, lesser.

To me it is ridiculous.

[Jackdaw]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Mixed emotions. I'm 34 and at a point where I feel neither old nor young. My metabolism has slowed and that frustrates me. I fell off the good health wagon when I was 30 do to some personal upheaval. I made the mistake of thinking my body would rebound as it always did, boy was I wrong. I've spent the last 2 years fixing things and it hasn't been easy. When I was 20 something and doing construction or in a lumber yard being in shape took care of itself. Now I'm in a managerial position and pushing papers or delegating and I have to find the time to work out and maintain a health(ier) diet. Trade offs I guess. Mostly the thing that stresses me about aging is that I don't know what I want to do with my life other than work. I tried settling down when I was much younger and absolutely hated it. Wasted a lot of years in a bad situation with a good person. Followed that up with a bad situation with a not so good person. I don't know I even have the time to settle down again much less if I want to. Maybe this is a silly fear but I've recently seen up close the life changing depression of a close relative being widowed. On one hand they had 30 years of devoted companionship. On the other hand the surviving spouse's quality of life has taken such a turn for the worse I'm bracing myself for another loss. That's what comes to mind when I think of aging.

[volcaniclastic]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

When I was a little kid, I told my mom that I "couldn't wait to turn 16 and be an adult and move out". I was an adult at sixteen, and I was terrified of turning 20.

Then I turned 20. And it was okay. And then I was afraid of turning 25. And then it was okay. And now I'm afraid of turning 30. Because I've lived 1/3 of my life already and done dick shit all worth showing off.

So aging really depresses me, because it shows me how I've failed, over and over again.

But to be honest, I'll probably be okay when I turn 30.

[Riothamus12]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

I may still be on the young end, but it is necessary and inevitable part of my existence. I just want to be able to say that I have lived well when it is all said and done.

[DanieMarie]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

One of the things I've noticed is that I've stopped expecting milestones to happen. I'm 29 in a week and a bit, and I just finished my bachelor's a year ago, and just started my career this year. I'm in my first serious relationship (which may also be my last). A lot of people are a lot younger when they go through the same things, but I really don't mind. It probably helps that I live in a real-world version of Neverland, but I look at people around me and they're all doing different things, so comparing my life to theirs doesn't really make sense. Comparing my life to people from my hometown also makes no sense, because we're just so different. I've just stopped expecting things to happen by a certain age and just try to enjoy what I do have. I guess I have a time limit to have kids (oh, biology), but other than that there's no rule for when you're supposed to do things in your life.

I can relate to the need to sleep more. I've always been somewhat tired (and years of blood tests have never been able to tell me why), but now I sleep through the night a lot more. Sometime between 10 and 12, I get super tired, and if I'm sitting or lying down, I'll just fall asleep. It's like my brain says "You're done" and hits the off switch. I don't even think it's that much of an age thing, because my friends are my age or older and can seem to stay out pretty late (though not doing anything like dancing...just quiet drinks haha). Me? I have to usually go home between 12 and 1, and even at that point, I'm exhausted. Sometimes I've made it out until 2, but very rarely. I used to be a night owl, and could easily stay up until 4 (though, admittedly, not much past that, unlike a lot of people here).

[Corvus]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

I used to think I would kill myself when I got to around 30. Sometimes I still think that. It's not that death scares me, it's sorta all the stuff in between. I don't want to stop being okay looking. I don't want to have arthritis or have trouble moving. I don't want to lose my eyesight (well anymore, I do need stronger glasses as is), or my hearing or my sense of memory (Alzheimer's runs in my family). Feeling powerless terrifies me. Being a prisioner in my own body, enfeebled with age is not a prospect I'm looking forward to, with my pride especially it's a pretty horrible thought to need to depend on others for basic things like eating or remembering.
I don't even know how I feel about getting that far... thinking of myself as an adult fills me with such apprehension. I don't want to grow old and realize I've done nothing and I feel unfulfilled but at the same time I don't feel there's anything particularly fulfilling to do with my life yet. Being a nihilist I don't feel there's any real meaning to life and with that my goal is to find something that makes me happy for this lifetime. Which is easier said than done. Most of all I think I'm afraid of being alone. Not even alone at the end of my life but at any time after I become an "adult". I don't make friends easily so when I get some I try to hold on as hard as I can but, you know how it is. Old friends aren't meant to be together sometimes and my oldest friends barely talk to me now, if they do at all. I don't want that to happen. As I get older I feel I'm losing more and more people in my life each time and not bringing enough people in. Eventually will I be left alone? Will I ever find someone to love me and I love him? I fear I'm going to get to the halfway point and realize I have nothing despite all I've gone through. Then I'll look at the younger, happier people and be embittered. Is it better to stay young and die young full of that possibility than to follow it through and fail. I'm 17 and I feel like I'm coming to terms with my mortality. I don't want to be an afterthought, a besides, or be forgotten but can I really stop it? I don;t want to go through life and realize however many years later how powerless I really am. It's much easier to fool myself into thinking I can actually do something when I have my whole life before me, even if I don't live it just knowing it's there. Part of my apprehension is that I'm not sure if this is my only life. Sure I believe in reincarnation but deep in my heart there's doubt even if I'm right though and we do keep living so what? Does that mean I have to continue this suffering how ever many times and grow old and die and have this fear over and over?

[DanieMarie]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

For me, 13 to about 24 was the hardest period of my life. Everyone says the confusion ends after high school, but it really doesn't. When you're in your teens and early 20s, you go through the transition between being a kid and being an adult. In the latter part of that period, you make the much harder transition between being a teen and an adult. It's not easy, and it's a learning process more than it is an event. It -does- get better, once you start to settle into who you are and what you enjoy. It happens at a different time for everyone. I know people who started to feel more settled at 24, and some who didn't feel it until they were 30. At some point though, you start to accept who you are and what your life is like, and after that, getting older doesn't seem so bad anymore

[lillywolf]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

growing old really does not bother me. I am more worried about everyone else around me growing old! I am worried about when my kids are old enough to go out clubbing and drinking and how safe they will be, if the world is going to get any worse than it is now.......but me, I just want to get everything done that I want to do

[Ula]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

I was devastated when I turned 30 and cried for days. I was psyched for 40. I am now 42 and love my age. I am finally old enough to be considered somewhat experienced. I have a solid career, home, family and I am more confident now then I have ever been spiritually. Not sure about 50 but I am enjoying my age right now and see no reason to fight getting older.

[anunitu]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Someone I used to know who was 80 at the time said the worst part was watching his friends die before him. That has always stayed with me as I got older. I think perhaps that is the worst part as My Father and Mother died and my older brother and sister went. Being the last or next to last one in your family is kinda hard.

[Chessa]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

I feel like if I get my mom's genes, I really won't even notice. Her side of the family doesn't slow down for anything. I'm more afraid of getting my dad's genes, with the asthma and the walkers and the weight gain and senility. Plus different cancers keep popping up on that side. I'm not afraid of white hair and wrinkles and bifocals. I just don't want to have to sit around and watch every body part fail one by one. (and for reference, I'm 18. And apparently not the old lady I thought an 18-year old would be)

[Lilium of the Valley]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Good question Anu!!!
I know many people myself that have so many fears and troubles concerning age. A good friend of mine will not even celebrate her Birthday anymore because of it... She is downright depressed because she is turning 30 next year.
I myself don't think of it really, I like to live in the moment. Right now I'm 23, healthy and happy. So this is what i concentrate on. I can "worry" about another age when I get there.
The reason why I say "worry" is because IMO every age has something beautiful, no matter which one it is.
All you have to do is open your eyes and see it, it's always right there in front of you.

[anunitu]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Truthfully at 30 I did not think a thing about it,just moved on,when hitting 40 I did not really have a reaction,BUT at 50 I had to stop and consider only because it kinda caught me by surprise. It just seemed that right then I realized just how much of my life had gone. I did just move on because really what else can you do. Now at 66 I don't really worry,I enjoy what I can and find things to pass the time. Because of the Arthritis I am limited in my physical activity I mainly go online and watch TV.
It may seem strange to our younger friends here,but I am kinda just waiting for the big begone to come and take me where ever. Not like I get a special pass to exempt me from the big sleep.